Rudy Giuliani Goes AWOL After Promising to Marry Gay Friends

June 29, 2011

In 2001, when Rudy Giuliani was struggling through his divorce, he was taken in by a gay couple in Midtown for six months. His host, Howard Koeppel, asked Giuliani one morning over breakfast if he would preside over his wedding to partner Mark Hsiao. Giuliani responded, “Howard, I don’t ever do anything that’s not legal. If it becomes legal in New York, you’ll be one of the first ones I would marry.” But now that same sex marriage is legal, the former mayor seems to be going back on his word. Koeppel started making calls to Giuliani before the bill legalizing gay marriage had passed, but he has yet to hear back from the former mayor.

Koeppel and Hsiao were married in 2009 in Connecticut, and New York Magazine points out that Giuliani skipped that service after RSVP’ing “yes.”

Despite his support for civil unions for gays and his rocky track record with marriages, Giuliani continues to blow off his old friends and they want to know why. Political consultant Scott Levenson told the Post that he believes Giuliani’s reluctance to marry the couple comes from the fact that “[Presiding at the wedding] would be a sign he’s no longer interested in running [as a Republican] for president — ever.”
[NYP]